PERSIANS' DILEMMA.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 493, 28 April 1909, Page 7

PERSIANS' DILEMMA.

TWO EVILS. SHAH'S RULE PREFERRED TO TSAR'S. TABRIZ MAY SURRENDER. (Bt TKI.EQU.AWt—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COri'IIWHT.) (Reo. April 27, 10.25 p.m.) TohDran, April 27. The besieged Nationalists in Tabriz, after an excited discussion, on Saturday," decided that surrender was preferable to a Russian occupation. Thoy therefore sent a telegrum to tho Shah, whose reply was conciliatory. In connection with the Russian advance, 200 Cossacks and 500 infantry aro approaching Tabriz. A thousand infantry and artillery remain in the Persian town of Julfa, flear the frontier. ' . • '. . An additional Russian force of 4500 men is ready to leave Tiflis, the capital of Russian Caucasia. .■ " '

" THE RULE OF ANARCHY. The special correspondent of the "Daily News" telegraphed from Tabriz in March :— "The tribesmen of the .mountainous ;Knradaghli region to the north' maintain their lawless supremacv on tho Julfa road. Tile total number of th'esa ill-assorted bodies of Royalists surrounding us in Tabriz is estimated ut 6000. Communications with Resht and Ispahan is now completely severed. A population estimated at 300,000 is suffering extreme .privations as the result of the prolonged siege. The women go about complaining of lack of the bare necessaries of subsistence, and the merchants are beggared by the complete stoppage of business. .■■;■■■ ,'.'■' "On the other,hand, every effort, which has been made so far to take the town by; assault has failed; and personally. I am incredulous of any snecess. of tliat kind by the Royalists. Satar Khan and 1 his followers ehpw tho most determined', spirit, and declare thoy will vesrst the pressure of • hunger for months, to come. The. plight of tho Shah's troops is no better, and their .prospect'of victorj not so good.It is the restoration not only of a legislative machinery and the Constitution, but , of. the barest elements of law and order, that Persia needs." '•":'■.- .. ■:■;. . . ■